Karen Black, the prolific actress who appeared in more than 100 movies and was featured in such counterculture favorites as "Easy Rider," ''Five Easy Pieces" and "Nashville," has died in Los Angeles.

Known for her full lips and thick, wavy hair that seemed to change color from film to film, Black often portrayed women who were quirky, troubled or threatened. Her breakthrough was as a prostitute who takes LSD with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in 1969's "Easy Rider," the hippie classic that helped get her the role of Rayette Dipesto, a waitress who dates  and is mistreated by  an upper-class dropout played by Jack Nicholson in 1970's "Five Easy Pieces."

In 1971, Black starred with Nicholson again in "Drive, He Said," which Nicholson also directed. Over the next few years, she worked with such top actors and directors as Richard Benjamin ("Portnoy's Complaint"), Robert Redford and Mia Farrow ("The Great Gatsby") and Charlton Heston ("Airport 1975").

Black also starred as a jewel thief in Alfred Hitchcock's last movie, "Family Plot," released in 1976.

Karen Black was one of those actresses whose natural beauty, comic timing, sense of irony and professionalism was usually overlooked because she was distractingly, relentlessly beautiful. Karen handled complicated roles with ease and panache. Something about Karen reminds me of those esoteric, conceptual films by Andy Warhol, so popular in the 60’s, done best through Fellini’s films or the latter Swedish films of Ingmar Bergman; baroque, superficial and deeply moving all at once. Scarlet Johansson and Megan Fox remind me a little of her in today’s films.

She got to work with one of the masters of film. I just remembered name number three of who Karen reminds me of, the third actress would be the co-star of Thelma and Louise, Geena Davis. Geena does character parts well, she never found the perfect signature vehicle to make her a stand alone type star, as Pretty woman did this for Julia Roberts, Basic Instinct solidified the career of Sharon Stone (for better of worse). Cleopatra for Liz Taylor. Geena might be just fine with having been a ‘second tier’ type actress. She still has a very different, upper eschelon sort of life than most ‘normal people’ do, those who are not professional athletes or entertainers.

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